Children of prisoners: A case-study of social vulnerable children in Sao Paulo, Brazil

This qualitative research project is based on interviews with and drawings by children with parents in prison, who lived under vulnerable conditions in a poor neighborhood in the city of Marilia, Sao Paulo State in the years 2000-2002.  The children belong to socially excluded groups of the Brazilian population due to their poverty and their being stigmatized as the children of prison inmates. Two university students Rute Bernardo Pinto and Sandra Regina Galdino Miyashiro, recipients of CNPq/UNESP grants, conducted the interviews with the children and their public school teachers. This research questions whether 7to10-year-old children, whose parents are in prison, have difficulty when interacting with other children and teachers, and difficulty learning compared to children whose parents are not prisoners. The research was held in a school because it is an institution outside the family and it was possible to reach the children’s vision of their own families at school. Our results show that children act differently, depending on which relative is imprisoned and the causes of imprisonment. However, all the children in these circumstances suffered emotionally and financially. Teachers have different attitudes toward children of prisoners. Sometimes they demonstrate prejudice, other times they try to help them. However, in general, they are not concerned about the children’s problems outside of school. The teachers’ speech about crime and legal punishment in the classroom conflicts with the children’s lives. The research did not find any differences between children of prisoners and other children regarding their capacity of learning.